Business Commons^™

Three Essays On Managerial Decision-Making In The Pursuit Of Internationalization Strategies, Le Xu

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the important role top managers, especially chief executive officers (CEOs), play in the internationalization process of multinational enterprises (MNEs). Particularly, this dissertation highlights how managerial risk propensity shapes the choices of internationalization strategy. The first essay examines how CEOs of acquiring firms react differently to the adverse impact of negative media coverage on acquisition premiums paid to foreign target firms from the theoretical lens of agency theory. The results indicate that CEOs react less strongly to negative media coverage over their acquisitions by lowering acquisition premiums if they are granted with stock options and protected by takeover …

Canadian Banks And Imperialism In The English-Speaking Caribbean, Tamanisha J. John

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Canadian banks have been important components of an imperialist system since at least the 19^th century. However, their long and rich history of operating as purely exploitative entities in the English-speaking Caribbean region is often overlooked— leading to many incomplete and conflicting narratives about Canada’s role within the global system. I argue that Canada is an imperial actor that exerts agency in supporting a Canadian banking oligopoly both within Canada and in the English-speaking Caribbean. Insufficient attention is given to these Canadian banks, especially considering the power they have wielded in the Caribbean over the centuries. By analyzing the …

The Effects Of Population Diversity On The Economic And Household Welfare Of Metropolitan Areas In The U.S., Liria M. Litano

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this paper was to understand the impact of population diversity on household and economic welfare in all the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) in the United States of America (U.S.). We focused on positive views concerning the relationships between population diversity and factors such as human capital, knowledge, and innovation. We established economic growth factors using the Endogenous Growth Theory, which stated that human capital, innovation, and knowledge were significant contributors to economic growth (Romer, 1994). We argued that population diversity affected these contributors; therefore, it helped to create economic growth.

From a human capital perspective, population diversity …

The Effect Of Cross-Functional Integration On Organizational Performance: A Look At Collaboration, Coordination, And Communication, Loraine A. Jackson

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cross-functional integration (CFI) in organizations involves a sequence of integrated tasks and activities across multiple departments and units. Modern organizations are hierarchical and have separated functional departments. This may lead to limited reciprocal communication and poor coordination. Work is often divided, categorized, and poses a challenge for CFI personnel to be practical. This challenge continues as technology and organizational structures change.

This study is to investigate the effect of CFI on organization performance. The study also looked at CFI from a triadic level of analysis, a broader perspective involving several functional units and processes within the organization. Specifically, this study …

Strategic Capabilities Of Emerging Market Firms, Mohan Song

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Strategic capabilities assist emerging market firms at the corporate level in developing and managing capabilities in the processes to better use resources and sustain competitive advantages. The umbrella of strategic capabilities includes ordinary capabilities and dynamic capabilities. Dynamic capabilities focus on change internally and externally (e.g., existing resource base, external environment). The dissertation is composed of three essays.

The first essay, titled “Dynamic Capabilities of Emerging Market Firms: A Multi-disciplinary Literature Review,” provides a critical summary of changing views of dynamic capabilities processes in recent decades. The review aims to identify possible avenues for future research in emerging markets.

The …

Family Firms In The Developing Context: Essays On Internationalization, Women, And Generational Changes, Maria Lapeira

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite a plethora of research discussing the effect of context on internationalization of firms, the family business literature has only recently begun to acknowledge contextual characteristics as important factors shaping family firm behavior (i.e. Carney, Duran, Van Essen, and Shapiro, 2017). The first essay, a literature review, adds to this conversation by unpacking how internationalization decisions in developing country family firms are affected by a number of resources, industry and institutional characteristics. This systematic review of family firm internationalization uses the strategy tripod perspective to understand characteristics that might have either a negative or a positive valence with respect to …

Three Essays In International Finance, Iván Marcelo Rodríguez Jr

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I focus my research on some of the economically significant and current open problems in international finance, specifically the relationship between Credit Default Swaps (CDS) on sovereign debt, the importance of fundamental dyadic distances on the initiation and completion of cross-border mergers and acquisitions, and the impact of domestic and transnational terrorism on cross-border mergers and acquisitions.

In the first essay, we study the relationship between sovereign debt ratings and the information contained in CDS spreads regarding the credit risk of the reference entity. Using data for 54 countries over a twelve-year period, we find that the …

The Effect Of Institutional Dimensions And Cultural Dimensions On The Level Of Entrepreneurial Activity Across Countries, Jung Hoon Kim

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Entrepreneurship research is becoming more critical to policymakers and scholars around the world. However, few scholars have explored the effect of national culture or institutions on the entrepreneurial activity using cross-national data. Furthermore, most previous scholars have been limited to formal institutions as a theoretical structure to explore the entrepreneurial activity across countries. It is crucial to include formal, informal institutions and culture to better understand about how much or why entrepreneurial activity differs across countries.

To fill this gap, this study investigates how national culture and institutions impact the level of entrepreneurial activity across 30 countries using cross-national dataset …

The Influence Of Perceived Psychological Contract Violations On Expatriate Attitudes: The Moderating Role Of Individual, Organizational, And National Factors, Kowoon Kim

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As a business becomes dependent on knowledge and intellectual capabilities, human resource management is undoubtedly a key driver of an organization’s success. In the same vein, the importance of managing human resources for the multinational enterprise (MNE) cannot be overstated (Dowling, 1999; Hiltrop, 1999; Tung, 1984). Since a large number of MNEs depend on expatriates to run their global operations despite their relatively high costs, it is essential for MNEs to develop a better understanding of expatriate management. In this regard, the psychological contract has received recent attention as an underlying mechanism for managing expatriates. However, existing psychological contract studies …

Essays On Emerging Multinational Enterprises' Acquisitions In Developed Economies, Faisal R. Harahap

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates emerging multinational enterprises (EMNEs)’s acquisitions of firms in developed economies (DE) through three distinctive but interrelated essays. Despite costs EMNEs must offset from the obvious cultural distance (CD) they encounter with limited exploitable advantages, EMNEs have continued to aggressively acquire firms in DE, suggesting there are ways for the EMNEs to effectively overcome CD. In Essay 1, using insights from the symbolic interaction paradigm in sociology, I developed the Dynamic Socio-Cultural Model (DSCM), to uncover the general process of cultural creation and change. At the core of the DSCM is the process of collective learning and adaptive …

Client-Vendor Collaboration In Information Technology Development Projects And Its Emerging Outcomes, Mingyu Zhang

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the key dimensions of IT project collaboration and its outcomes. We conceptualized key dimensions of client-vendor collaboration, and its emerging outcomes based on literature reviews. Then, we proposed a new research framework that links IT development processes to IT project client-vendor collaboration which in turn affects the outcomes of IT project. We examined the key dimensions of IT project collaboration and their impacts on project outcomes. We identified four critical IT development processes and technologies that contribute to the development of project collaboration. Our results include: (1) Coordination practices and technologies (such as communication quality and coordination …

A Cultural Analysis Of Employees' Work Values And Their Consequences For Work-Related Outcomes: The Case Of China, Jun Yang

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To create and maintain a fully engaged workforce, establishing person-organization (P-O) fit among employees has continued to be a central focus of organizational research. In addition, with growing numbers of older workers approaching retirement age, younger workers will soon become the dominant segment of the future workforce. Given this unfolding population trend, it has become increasingly necessary for organizations to gain a clearer understanding of the work values of the growing young population of workers and how P-O fit based on those work values may be linked to desirable work-related attitudes and behaviors.

The overarching aim of this dissertation is …

Foreign-Born Ceos, Country-Specific Skills, Selection, And Strategic Consequences, Yannick Thams

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I first suggest an extension of the managerial rents model and more specifically the managerial skills typology that it offers. Building on research in international business, I propose adding country-specific skills (CSS) to this typology in addition to firm-specific, industry-specific, and generic skills. I define CSS as managers’ abilities that are applicable and specific to a particular national institutional context. Such skills are distinct from the other three types identified and are likely to influence managers’ performance and the performance of their firms.

So if CSS are distinct skills, what are the implications for strategy and international …

Regional Diversification And Performance: Conceptualization And Competing Strategic Objectives, Keith James Kelley

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation comprised of three essays provides justification for the need to pursue research on multinationality and performance with a more fine-grained approach. Essay one is a conceptual response to an article written by Jean-Francois Hennart in 2011 which questions the need and approach toward future research in this domain. I argue that internalization theory does not render multinationality and performance research meaningless and identify key areas where methodological enhancements can be made to strengthen our research findings with regard to Hennart’s call for more content validity. Essay two responds to the need for more-fine grained research on the consequences …

The Mediating Effect Of Innovation On The Relationship Between Corporate Reputation And Performance In U.S. Firms, Marcelo J. Alvarado-Vargas

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, corporate reputation has gained the attention of many scholars in the strategic management and related fields. There is a general consensus that higher corporate reputation is positively related to firm success or performance. However, the link is not always straightforward; as a result, it calls for researchers to dedicate their efforts to investigate the causes and effects of firm reputation and how it is related to performance. In this doctoral dissertation, innovation is suggested as a mediating variable in this relationship. Innovation is a critical factor for firm success and survival. Highly reputed firms are in a …

The Survival And Stock Performance Of Emerging Country Firms In The United States, Kun Yang

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many firms from emerging markets flocked to developed countries at high cost with hopes of acquiring strategic assets that are difficult to obtain in home countries. Adequate research has focused on the motivations and strategies of emerging country firms' (ECFs') internationalization, while limited studies have explored their survival in advanced economies years after their venturing abroad. Due to the imprinting effect of home country institutions that inhibit their development outside their home market, ECFs are inclined to hire executives with international background and affiliate to world-wide organizations for the purpose of linking up with the global market, embracing multiple perspectives …

How Employees With Different National Identities Experience A Geocentric Organizational Culture Of A Global Corporation: A Phenomenological Study, Maria S. Plakhotnik

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A global corporation values both profitability and social acceptance; its units mutually negotiate governance and represent a highly interdependent network where centers of excellence and high-potential employees are identified regardless of geographic locations. These companies try to build geocentric, or “world oriented” (Marquardt, 1999, p. 20), organizational cultures. Such culture “transcends cultural differences and establishes ‘beacons’ – values and attitudes – that are comprehensive and compelling” (Kets de Vries & Florent-Treacy, 2002, p. 299) for all employees, regardless of their national origins. Creating a geocentric organizational culture involves transforming each employee’s mindset, beliefs, and behaviors so that he/she can become …